Compete Glimmer: Call for Works About Epiphanies from Within the Mundane
Opportunity Description
International Deadline: August 29, 2025 – The Cincinnati based non-profit arts organization and gallery, Manifest, invites visual artists and designers to submit works about revelations, sudden comprehension, and epiphanies from within the mundane.
In the repetition of the everyday, the smallest glimmer can cut through like a bolt of lightning—or arrive more gently, through a subtle but irrevocable shift. A whisper. Despite its brevity, it appears at just the right moment to change you. And changed, you may see everything differently.
Glimmers usually come unbidden. They find us in the shower, while preparing a meal, walking the dog, sweeping the studio floor. Magic arises from the mundanity of life—the neutral backdrop against which something unexpected and transformative can emerge. These flashes of the divine reach us when we are open enough, still enough, to receive them.
This exhibition will showcase works that emerge from or reflect on such moments of insight—when the everyday becomes fertile ground. A half-finished sketch, a broken vase, an old object, a glance out the window, a shimmer of light through a glass of water: each can become a door to something more.
We’re interested in the impact of these experiences on the artist—and on the artwork. Epiphanies not born of spectacle, but of stillness. Whether abstract or representational, conceptual or intuitive, submissions should resonate with the idea of revelation from within the ordinary—glimmers that changed something, if only for a moment.
Exhibition Dates: December 12, 2025 – January 9, 2026.
ELIGIBILITY
GLIMMER is open to everyone internationally. The only limitation is that entries must represent original works which address the broad theme described above.
Open to all traditional and non-traditional genre and media.
HONORARIA
Each participating exhibitor will receive a $50 honorarium. The honorarium has no strings attached (other than full participation in the relevant exhibit). It is a modest thank-you for collaborating with us as we chart our future.
$9,000 IN GRAND JURY AWARDS
For our current season the Grand Jury Award format will result in the awarding of $1,000 to one work during each of our nine exhibition periods. This expands our support from one to up to nine artists each year, and allocates 80% more funding to recognize the merits of exhibited works… see more.
JURY & CURATOR
This exhibit will be juried by an anonymous several member panel of professional and academic advisors with a broad range of expertise relative to art and design. The jury will then pass along their recommendations to the exhibit curator who will make the final selections from the jury-approved pool.
PUBLICATION
Manifest Press will produce a high quality hard-cover publication documenting each entire season of exhibits, artists, and works shown. This continues Manifest’s commitment to long-term documentation and dissemination of our projects, and the expansion of physical exhibits into a broader geography and time frame, while also bringing all exhibits together under one cover each year to create a better product which will be more valuable to the public, teachers, libraries, and exhibiting artists.
ENTRY FEE
$45 for up to four entries submitted. $5 per each additional entry.
APPLY ONLINE
Visit Manifest Gallery online to Apply.
SALES
Artworks are not required to be for sale in order to be included in our exhibitions. All work, unless indicated as not for sale (NFS), will be available for sale during exhibit. Manifest Gallery will retain a commission of 30% of the sale price on artwork sold during the exhibition.
INSURANCE
Works will be insured while on gallery premises. Insurance covers theft, vandalism, damage caused by gallery patrons or staff.
Visit Manifest Gallery online for complete details and to Apply.
About:
Manifest Creative Research Gallery and Drawing Center is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization located in East Walnut Hills in Cincinnati, Ohio. We serve as a venue for the display and experience of insightful, thought provoking art and design, and functions as a hub for creative research and innovation at all levels of artistic endeavor.
Manifest Gallery
2727 Woodburn Avenue
East Walnut Hills
Cincinnati, Ohio 45206
